What a pyaaz kachori is
The crust: refined flour rubbed with plenty of fat, so it bakes into flaky layers in the oil. Rajasthanis call that texture khasta, short and crumbly.
The filling: onions cooked slowly with roasted gram flour and spices until jammy, with sometimes a little potato to bind it.
- Pyaaz
- Onion, in Hindi
- Kachori
- A stuffed, fried pastry, round and puffed
- Size
- About the size of your palm
- Texture
- Flaky, layered crust, soft centre
- Cousins
- Dal kachori, mawa kachori, Kota kachori
- The spices: fennel above all, then coriander seed, cumin, nigella, a pinch of asafoetida, red chilli and dried mango powder for sourness.
- The shape: puffed and round, a little flattened, with a thin spot on top where the dough was pinched closed.
- The sound: a good one cracks when you press it, and the shell stays crisp for a few minutes even under chutney.
- Not a samosa: a samosa is a triangle with a potato filling and a thinner pastry. A kachori is round, flakier and, in Rajasthan, far more serious.
Where pyaaz kachori comes from
Nobody can date the first pyaaz kachori, and we won't pretend to. What is clear is that it belongs to the trading towns of Marwar and Dhundhar, where merchants needed food that was cheap, filling and quick, and where onions, gram flour and dried spices kept through the dry months. Fried pastries sold from big iron pans fitted that life.
Marwar's claim: in Jodhpur, pyaaz kachori and mirchi bada, the stuffed chilli fritter, are the city's breakfast pair. Many Rajasthanis consider Jodhpur its home.
- Jaipur's claim: in Jaipur, the name most people give is Rawat Mishthan Bhandar near Sindhi Camp, and the kachori has become part of the city's identity.
- A merchant's food: the halwai, the sweet-and-snack maker, sat at the centre of the bazaar, feeding traders, porters and travellers from dawn.
- A desert kitchen's logic: onions, gram flour and dried spices store well without refrigeration. That is the same thinking behind ker sangri and gatte.
- Today: pyaaz kachori is sold across India, and boxed by the dozen to carry home. In Rajasthan it is still eaten hot, standing up, in the morning.
Why the halwai fries it so slowly
Low heat: kachoris go into oil that is only warm and fry gently, turning now and then, for a long while. High heat browns the outside and leaves raw dough inside.
The puff: as the fat in the dough melts, the layers separate and the kachori swells. That slow swelling is what gives the flaky crust.
- Big batches: the great iron kadhai holds dozens at once, so a busy shop brings out a fresh tray every few minutes all morning.
- Rested dough: the dough is kneaded stiff and rested, so it holds the filling without tearing.
- What it fries in: shops use refined oil or a mix with ghee. Some old shops are proud of their ghee. Ask, and they will tell you.
- The test: a well-fried kachori sounds hollow when tapped and does not leak oil when you break it.
Where Jaipur eats its kachori
- Best-known
- Rawat Mishthan Bhandar, Station Road near Sindhi Camp
- Best hour
- About eight to ten in the morning
- Also order
- Mawa kachori, the sweet version
- Then
- Lassi in a clay cup on MI Road
Rawat Mishthan Bhandar
Where: near the railway station and Sindhi Camp bus stand, a short drive from the walled city.
- Why go: it is the name most of Jaipur gives for pyaaz kachori, and for mawa kachori too. Kachoris come out in batches all morning.
- How: buy at the counter, stand with everyone else and eat it hot from a leaf or paper bowl.
The walled city's small shops
Where: in the bazaars around Johari Bazaar, Chandpole and Badi Chaupar, often a single counter with a kadhai on the pavement.
- Why go: some of the best kachori in Jaipur has no name you could find online. Your guide will know which oil is fresh this week.
- How to choose: a queue of locals, a tray that empties fast and a cook who does nothing but fry.
Masala Chowk
Where: in Ram Niwas Garden beside the Albert Hall Museum, an open-air court of stalls from around the city.
- Why go: clean, seated and easy, the gentlest introduction to Jaipur street food, best in the evening.
- Honest note: kachori is a morning food. For the real thing, go to a counter at breakfast.
Kachori across Rajasthan
Jodhpur, the onion and the chilli
The pair: pyaaz kachori and mirchi bada, a large green chilli stuffed with spiced potato and fried in gram-flour batter.
- Where: the old sweet shops of the walled city, and Janta Sweet Home on Nai Sarak is one of the old favourites.
- Then: a glass of makhaniya lassi, rich with saffron and cardamom, near the clock tower and Sardar Market.
Kota, the lentil kachori
- The style: small, crisp kachoris filled with spiced lentils and a strong hit of asafoetida.
- Why it matters: Kota kachori is famous across India, and travellers carry boxes of it home.
Bikaner, kachori with bhujia
- The style: kachori sits beside the city's famous gram-flour bhujia and its rasgullas.
- Where: Chhotu Motu Joshi, near the station and Kote Gate, is the best-known name, with queues from early in the day. See our Bikaner food guide.
Udaipur and Ajmer, kachori with kadhi
- Udaipur: breakfast is a lentil kachori with a thin, tangy kadhi, the yoghurt and gram-flour curry, near the Jagdish temple.
- Ajmer: kadhi kachori is a local favourite too, broken into a bowl and drowned in kadhi. Pair it with a visit to Ajmer.
Mawa kachori, the sweet one
- What it is: a kachori filled with sweetened milk solids and nuts, fried and dipped in syrup.
- Where: born in Jodhpur, loved across Jaipur. One is enough for two people, especially after an onion one.
How to eat a pyaaz kachori
Ask for it hot: say garam, hot. The man at the counter will pull one from the newest tray.
Crack the top: press the centre with your thumb to break the shell, so the chutney can go inside.
The chutneys: sweet saunth, made of tamarind, dried ginger and jaggery, and a sharp green chutney of mint and coriander. Some shops add sliced raw onion.
- With sabzi: some shops serve kachori with a ladle of spiced potato curry. That makes it lunch.
- Right hand: eat with your right hand. Use the bowl as a plate and the kachori as a spoon.
- Then something sweet: a hot jalebi or a mawa kachori after an onion one is the Rajasthani way to end breakfast.
- Then a drink: chai in a small glass, or a clay cup of lassi. Our piece on lassi in Jaipur explains which shop to visit.
- Paper or leaf: most counters serve in a paper plate or a dona, a bowl stitched from dried leaves. Hold it flat, because the chutney runs.
- Pay as you go: at busy counters you pay first, or after, as the regulars do. Small notes make it easier.
- Ask for a box: if you want to take some to the car, ask for a box rather than a bag, so they don't crush.
Eating kachori safely on a first trip
Hot and busy: eat where there is a queue and a fresh tray every few minutes. Food that has been sitting is the risk, not the kachori itself.
Careful with chutney: green chutney is made with fresh herbs and water. In your first days, ask for tamarind only, or a little of each.
- Skip the raw onion: sliced raw onions on the side sit in the open. Leave them until your stomach has settled.
- Go gently: a kachori is rich. Start with one, and wait a day before a full kachori and jalebi breakfast.
- Water: drink bottled or filtered water, and skip ice from unknown sources. Our health and safety guide has more.
- Hands: carry sanitiser. Few counters have a basin.
- Mind the heat: a kachori straight from the pan holds steam inside. Break it open and wait a moment before the first bite.
- Morning is safest: the oil is freshest and the filling has just been made. By late afternoon, choose the busiest shop you can find.
Making pyaaz kachori at home
For the dough: 2 cups refined flour (maida), a quarter cup ghee or oil, half a teaspoon salt, a pinch of carom seed (ajwain), about half a cup cold water.
For the filling: 3 large onions finely chopped, 3 tablespoons gram flour (besan), 2 tablespoons oil, 1 boiled potato mashed (optional).
- Makes
- About 12 kachoris
- Time
- About two hours, including resting
- Hardest part
- Frying slowly enough
- Keeps
- A day, crisped again in a warm oven
- The whole spices: 1 teaspoon fennel seed, 1 teaspoon coriander seed coarsely crushed, half a teaspoon cumin, half a teaspoon nigella seed, a pinch of asafoetida.
- The ground spices: 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, half a teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon dried mango powder (amchur), half a teaspoon garam masala, salt to taste.
- The fresh things: 2 green chillies and a thumb of ginger, finely chopped, and a handful of coriander leaves.
- For frying: enough oil for deep frying in a heavy pan or kadhai.
Step 1, the dough
- Rub in the fat: rub the ghee into the flour, salt and ajwain until a handful holds its shape when squeezed. This makes the crust flaky.
- Knead stiff: add cold water a little at a time to make a firm, smooth dough. Cover it and rest it for at least thirty minutes.
Step 2, the filling
Roast the gram flour: in a dry pan over low heat until it smells nutty, then set it aside.
- Temper the spices: heat the oil, add asafoetida, cumin, fennel, coriander and nigella, then the chillies and ginger.
- Cook the onions: add the onions and cook slowly until soft and golden, not brown. Stir in the ground spices, the roasted gram flour and the potato.
- Cool completely: finish with coriander leaves and let it cool. A warm filling tears the dough.
Step 3, shaping
Divide: make twelve balls of dough and twelve of filling.
- Fill: flatten each ball of dough into a cup, thinner at the edges, add the filling, gather the edges and pinch closed.
- Press: turn it seam-side down and press gently into a thick disc. Keep the shaped kachoris covered.
Step 4, the slow fry
Warm, not hot: heat the oil only until a pinch of dough rises slowly. Slide in a few kachoris.
- Wait: let them fry gently, turning once or twice, until they puff and turn deep gold. It takes far longer than you expect.
- Drain and serve: drain on paper and serve hot, with tamarind chutney and green chutney.
A kachori morning in Jaipur, the way we plan it
Seven thirty: your guide meets you at your hotel, and the car takes you to the station side of the city before the traffic.
Eight: pyaaz kachori and mawa kachori at the counter of Rawat Mishthan Bhandar, standing with the office crowd.
- Nine: into the walled city as the shutters lift. Walk past Hawa Mahal with the morning sun on its face.
- Ten: a clay cup of lassi on MI Road, before it sells out, and a cutting chai, half a glass, at a street stall.
- Eleven: spice shops and sweet shops in the old bazaars, then back to the hotel for a long rest before a palace in the afternoon.
- For the whole day: our food of Jaipur guide and food and royal kitchens page plan the rest, and our food lover's Rajasthan journey builds a trip around the table.
What most visitors miss
The four o'clock round: kachori is not only breakfast. Shops fry a second big batch for the afternoon tea crowd, and the counter is busy again from about four.
The halwai's other trays: beside the kachoris there is usually samosa, mirchi bada, dal pakwan or fresh jalebi. Ask what came out of the pan most recently.
- The leaf bowl: many old shops still serve in a dona, a bowl stitched from dried leaves. It is the original disposable plate, and it composts.
- The take-away trade: office workers buy kachoris by the dozen in paper bags for colleagues. If you see a big order going out, the batch is fresh.
- The winter special: from about December, some Jaipur shops fill kachoris with fresh green peas, matar kachori, for a few weeks only.
- The old pans: the great iron kadhai at a long-running shop may be older than the cook. Ask, and you will often get a story with your change.
- The wedding version: at Rajasthani weddings, small cocktail kachoris are fried by the hundred. If you are invited to one, our journal on Rajput weddings explains the rest of the menu.
When to eat it, and who will love it
Winter: from November to February, a hot kachori on a cold morning is the best thing in the city. Winter also brings green-pea kachoris to Jaipur.
The monsoon: in July and August, kachori and pakoras in the rain, and ghevar for dessert. Read our piece on ghevar and Teej.
- Summer: from April to June, eat it early, before the heat, and follow it with salted buttermilk rather than tea.
- Vegetarians: pyaaz kachori is vegetarian. Strict Jains avoid it because of the onion, but a dal kachori without onion is easy to find.
- Vegans: ask about the fat in the dough. Some shops use ghee, some oil.
- Gluten: the crust is wheat flour, and asafoetida powder is often mixed with wheat. Coeliacs should skip it. Our Rajasthani food guide has other options.